


Certain Heights

by Suzthesnooze



Category: Beetlejuice (TV 1989), Beetlejuice - All Media Types
Genre: Best Friends, Fear of Flying, Fear of Heights, Fluff, Friendship, Pre-Relationship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 03:48:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21191054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzthesnooze/pseuds/Suzthesnooze
Summary: A short drabble from the first year of Beetlejuice and Lydia's friendship. Lydia asks Beetlejuice what it's like to fly and he's happy to satisfy her curiosity. Cartoonverse.





	Certain Heights

“It will be fun!”

Lydia toed the edge of the plateau, her gaze following a few tiny rocks as they crumbled and tumbled down towards the yellow dunes which comprised the lower levels of the Neitherworld’s bizarre landscape. To think, only minutes ago the girl and ghost had been safely seated on the Roadhouse couch, waiting for their current favorite show, True Grime, to air. Beetlejuice and Lydia often chatted and joked about this or that, entirely comfortable sharing anything with one another. They had been best friends for little over a year now, after all, and neither had anyone else with which to be themselves. Not that the lack of company bothered either of them. The dead con man and mortal goth girl made a strange pair, but the past year had proven (aside from a rocky start) that the two were undoubtedly thick as thieves, peas in a pod.

She’d watched him drift up into the air, smiling at some cheesy quip, before musing aloud, “Can all ghosts fly, Beej?”

“Pfft. Nah, it takes a really special sort’a ghost to be able to do what I can do!”

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Oh, my. Such modesty.” She giggled and he drifted out of the air to sit at her side. Lydia sighed, resting her chin in her palms. “I hope I have magic powers when I die. I’ve always wondered what it'd be like to fly.”

She hadn’t thought he’d be so eager to help satisfy her curiosity.

Lydia gulped hard, hands shaking, anticipating and dreading the horrible tug of weightlessness in her gut if she managed to find the nerve to take the leap. It was crazy. It was completely unreasonable, impossible, dangerous, irresponsible. She could plummet headlong into sandworm land and likely be a ghost before she hit the dunes.

The fear of death aside, Lydia couldn’t even bear the thought of succumbing to the immense height, the rushing wind, the long long long long ways down--

“I-...I don’t think I can do this, BJ… It was just a silly thought.” Lydia confessed, wrapping her arms tightly around herself and taking a step back from the edge. “True Grime will be starting soon! Shouldn't we probably get back--”

“Kid.”

Her deep brown gaze lifted up from below her dark fringe to see Beetlejuice hovering against a purpling backdrop of swirling clouds and the stars that seemingly never left the sky, one red-tipped hand extended towards her. His crooked grin managed sincerity, despite his gnarled teeth, and the wicked v of his brow had softened considerably. A strange look on the ghoul she’d only ever known to be a mischief maker.

“You gotta trust me...” he said, "It's gonna be fine. I'm not gonna let you fall."

Lydia could do little else but comply.

She did trust him, as foolish as it probably was. He was a despicable, deplorable, dangerous, dastardly deviant and there wasn’t a soul alive or dead who would be foolish enough to put any amount of faith in the notoriously wicked Beetlejuice. Everyone knew to be careful around him. Everyone knew they had to keep their distance. Everyone except for Lydia Deetz.

Brow drawn tight as she screwed up her courage, Lydia tentatively placed her hand in his and scarcely had time to reconsider before he yanked her over the edge. She yelped, suddenly far too aware of the vast nothing beneath her feet, and the tiny teen scrunched her eyes tightly shut. The tug of gravity never came. Instead, when lydia dared to peek, she found she was wrapped up in striped arms. The familiar fabric was comforting and the girl pressed herself more tightly into his snug embrace.

“Hey, whaddaya know?” Beetlejuice chortled, giving his best friend a squeeze until a laugh was forced from her mouth. “Look at that! You’re flying, Babes!”

“Flying…” Lydia laughed in awe and disbelief. “Don’t you dare let go, Beetlejuice.”

“Not a chance. You just hang on." Lydia's stomach lurched as they started upward and she buried her face into the magenta fabric of his shirt. He smelled, of course, like rot and rain and gym socks, but she'd become rather accustomed to it by now. It wasn't fair to complain that a dead man would smell like death.

"You gotta see this, Lyds. Take a look around!"

When she finally dared to glance around, Lydia found that the ledge she’d stood on was now far below them and they were ever so gradually ascending into the darkening sea of twinkling stars. The vastness was overwhelming and Lydia's breath caught in her throat. There were bands of galaxies colors she'd never seen in the night sky on Earth. The vague shapes of distant planets she wasn't sure had names. _How utterly special,_ she thought with delight,_ and he **wanted** to show me..._

"It's beautiful, Beej…" “Bluugh.” She glanced from the sky to Beetlejuice, quirking a brow as he blew a raspberry. “Oh, please. You wouldn’t have brought me up here if you didn’t think I would like it.”

As he’d just proven to her, she could trust him implicitly. He wouldn’t purposefully harm her. He wouldn’t bring her up here if he didn’t think she’d be dazzled by the stars.

He wouldn’t let her fall.

“Naah, I was just curious if a flight on air BJ would be too traumatic for ya!” was his gruff, curt acknowledgement. But after a moment he added, “It ain’t, right?"

"No! It’s just..." Lydia sought a word that wouldn’t make the ghoul cringe, and only found “incredible… Thank you for showing me this, Beetlejuice."

The ghoul opened his mouth to smart off again, but as Lydia snugged into his grasp he quickly clamped his jaws shut. Exactly when he'd decided that this mortal kid's happiness was his own, he wasn't sure, but Beetlejuice was sure it wouldn't be the last time he'd so something just to see her smile. 

**Author's Note:**

> Just a short fluffy drabble that wouldn't let me alone. I hope you guys enjoyed! I'm slowly needling my way through Get a Life and i'll update soon, but i'm currently wrapped up in an animated Beetlejuice project! You can learn more about that @ my tumblr account, Suzthesnooze.


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